Patricia Neal - Biography - IMDb Patricia Neal Biography Showing all 69 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (52) | Personal Quotes (10) Overview (4) 5' 8½" (1.74 m) Mini Bio (1) Patricia Neal, the Oscar- and Tony Award-winning actress, was born Patricia Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky. Her father managed a coal mine and her mother was the daughter of the town doctor. She grew up in Knoxville, where she attended high school. She was first bit by the acting bug at the age of 10, after attending an evening of monologues at a Methodist church. She subsequently wrote a letter to Santa Claus, telling him, "What I want for Christmas is to study dramatics". She won the Tennessee State Award for dramatic reading while she was in high school. She apprenticed at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia when she was 16-years-old, between her junior and senior years in high school.

After studying drama for two years at Northwestern University, she headed to New York City and landed the job as an understudy in The Voice of the Turtle (1947). It was the producer of the play that had her change her name from Patsy to Patricia. After replacing Vivian Vance in the touring company of "Turtle", she won a role in a play that closed in Boston and then appeared in summer stock. She won the role of the teenage "Regina" in Lillian Hellman 's play, Another Part of the Forest (1948), for which she won a Tony Award in 1947. Subsequently, she signed a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. In the first part of her film career, her most impressive roles were in The Fountainhead (1949), opposite Gary Cooper , with whom she had three-year-long love affair, and in director Robert Wise 's sci-fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), which she made at 20th Century-Fox. Warners hadn't been thrilled with her and let her go before her contract was up, so she signed with Fox.

Her film career stagnating, she returned to Broadway and achieved the success that eluded her in films, appearing in the revival of Hellman's play, The Children's Hour (1961), in 1952. She met and married the writer, Roald Dahl , in 1953, and they would have five children in 30 years of marriage. In 1957, she had one of her finest roles in Elia Kazan 's parable about the threat of mass-media demagoguery and home-grown fascism in A Face in the Crowd (1957). Before she had appeared in the movie, Neal had taken over the role of "Maggie" in Tennessee Williams ' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), the Broadway smash that had been directed by Kazan. Returning to the stage, she appeared in the London production of Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and co-starred with Anne Bancroft in the Broadway production of The Miracle Worker (1962).

After appearing in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), she had what was arguably her finest role, as Alma the housekeeper, in Hud (1963) opposite Paul Newman . The film was a hit and Neal won the Best Actress Oscar. In 1965, she suffered a series of strokes that nearly killed her. She was filming John Ford 's film, 7 Women (1966), at the time, and had to be replaced by Anne Bancroft (who would later take a role she turned down, "Mrs. Robinson" in The Graduate (1967)). Neal was pregnant at the time. She underwent a seven-hour operation on her brain and survived, later delivering her fifth child. She underwent rehabilitation supervised by her husband. She had turned down The Graduate (1967) as she had not recovered fully from her stroke. When she returned to the screen, in 1968 in The Subject Was Roses (1968), she suffered from memory problems. According to her director, Ulu Grosbard , "The memory element was the uncertain one. But when we started to shoot, she hit her top level. She really rises to the challenge.

She has great range, even more now than before". She received an Oscar nomination for her work. Subsequently, new acting roles equal to her talent were sparse. She did receive three Emmy nominations, the first for originating the role of "Olivia Walton" in the 1971 TV movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971), that gave birth to the TV show The Waltons (1971). Patricia Neal died on August 9, 2010 in Edgarton, Massachusetts from lung cancer. She was 84 years old. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood Spouse (1) Grandmother of model/actress Sophie Dahl , Chloe Dahl and Luke Kelly . Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award (1986). She was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967), but she was nervous about doing such a demanding role so soon after her stroke. Roald was credited with helping her rehabilitate after her strokes. He designed her recovery routines. Grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her own stroke recovery experiences led to her becoming a champion in the rehabilitation field.

Her commitment to the rehabilitation center at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center (in her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee) led the Center to dedicate this in 1978 as the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center. Attended and graduated from Knoxville High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. "Variety", the entertainment newspaper, mistakenly reported in their February 22, 1965 headline that Patricia Neal had died from her multiple strokes five days earlier. In truth, she remained in a coma for 21 days. Pregnant at the time, her daughter, Lucy Dahl , was born healthy. After moving to New York, she earned her first job as a Broadway understudy after only two-and-a-half months of pounding the pavement in the production of "The Voice of the Turtle". Has a summer home in Martha's Vineyard. Mother of Ophelia Dahl , Lucy Dahl , Theo Dahl and Tessa Dahl . Daughter, Olivia Twenty Dahl (born April 20, 1955 - died November 17, 1962), died suddenly of complications from measles at the age of seven. Received her Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (1947).

Member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. In 1947, the first time that Broadway's Tony Awards were presented, she won the Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) Award for "Another Part of the Forest". Her classmates at Northwestern University included Cloris Leachman , Paul Lynde , Charlotte Rae , Charlton Heston , Martha Hyer and Agnes Nixon . Began a relationship with Gary Cooper on the set of The Fountainhead (1949). He was forty-seven, she was twenty-two. In 1951, Cooper separated from his wife with the intention of marrying Neal; however, he never filed for divorce, and in 1954, they reconciled. Meanwhile, the affair with Neal had fizzled out, and she married Roald Dahl . On March 4, 2007, she received one of the two Lifetime Achievement Awards presented annually by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University, following a screening of her classic film A Face in the Crowd (1957) ( Roy Scheider was the other honoree). In Italy, most of her films were dubbed by Clelia Bernacchi .

She was occasionally dubbed by Franca Dominici -in The Fountainhead (1949); Giovanna Scotto -in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); Tina Lattanzi -in Diplomatic Courier (1952); as well as Anna Miserocchi . Has performed at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia. She has a grandchild from daughter, Ophelia Dahl , and Ophelia's partner, Lisa Frantzis.

Grandchildren: Sophie Dahl (born on September 15, 1977), Clover Martha Patricia Kelly (born on September 21, 1984), Luke Kelly (aka "Luke James Roald Kelly") (born on July 17, 1986), Ned Dahl Donovan (born on January 7, 1994) from daughter Tessa Dahl ; Phoebe Patricia Rose Faircloth (born on November 4, 1988), Chloe Dahl (aka Chloe Michaela Dahl) (born on September 12, 1990) from daughter Lucy Dahl ; Alexa Isabella Dahl (born on June 26, 2005) from son Theo Dahl . Returned to work 3 months after giving birth to her son Theo Dahl in order to begin filming Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Performed with the Tennessee Valley Players before studying drama at Northwestern University. Pat and Roald's ordeal and ultimate victory over her illness made for an excellent movie, The Patricia Neal Story (1981), starring Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde .

Won the Tony, Donaldson, Theatre World and New York Dramatic Critics awards for her 1946 Broadway performance in Lillian Hellman 's "Another Part of the Forest". It was Hellman who later introduced Patricia to future husband Roald Dahl . Made an appearance at the 2008 Nashville Film Festival in which she was given the festival's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. Unhappy with her roles in Hollywood, she was suspended by Warner Bros. for refusing to co-star with Randolph Scott in a western. That and her torrid but futile affair with married actor Gary Cooper , which led to an abortion and nervous collapse, quickened her decision to leave Hollywood and return to New York City where she refocused on theater. Her father, William Burdette Neal, was a transportation manager for a coal company; her mother, Eura Mildred Petrey, was a bookkeeper. Following her two-year illness and rehabilitation, the Oscar-winning Patricia made her first public appearance in March 1967, in which she spoke to 2,000 people in New York City at a benefit for the New York Association for Brain Injured Children.

She also showed up at the 1967 Academy Awards ceremony to present the award for "Best Foreign Film" and received a standing ovation. On February 5, 1965, while on location filming 7 Women (1966), a pregnant Patricia was bathing daughter Tessa Dahl at a rented home when she suffered a massive, paralyzing stroke, followed by two more. Baby Lucy Dahl was later born healthy but in its aftermath, the actress suffered from partial paralysis, partial blindness, she lost her memory and was unable to speak. Husband Roald Dahl had her undergo extensive therapy back in England, including swimming, walking, memory games and crossword puzzles. Her 5-month-old baby son Theo Dahl suffered severe neurological damage on December 5, 1960, when his carriage (which was being pushed by a nurse) was accidentally crushed between a taxi and a bus in New York City. He survived following several operations.

After he played such a strong and devoted role in her physical and mental recovery from her paralytic illness, Patricia divorced her husband, writer Roald Dahl , after discovering his romantic affair with her close friend, Felicity ("Liccy") d'Abreu Crossland (aka Liccy Dahl ). The couple married shortly after Roald and Patricia's divorce became final. Returned to work 6 months after giving birth to her daughter Olivia to begin performing in "A Roomful of Roses" on Broadway. Was in a story segment of The Third Secret (1964) which was removed from the film. Was 5 months pregnant with her son Theo Dahl when she completed her run of the Broadway play "The Miracle Worker". Was 3 months pregnant with her daughter Tessa Dahl when she completed filming A Face in the Crowd (1957). Was supposed to continue playing the female lead role as Olivia Walton in The Waltons (1971) after the pilot episode, but her health problems prevented this. Was unable to attend The 36th Annual Academy Awards (1964), where she won the Best Actress Oscar for Hud (1963), as she was 8 months pregnant with her daughter Ophelia Dahl .

Her upset at being knocked unconscious in order to give birth to her first child, Olivia, led her to vow never to give birth in New York City again. Shared an apartment with Jean Hagen in New York City whilst working on Broadway. Mildred Dunnock served as her matron of honor at her wedding to Roald Dahl on July 2, 1953. Returned to work 2 months after giving birth to her daughter Ophelia Dahl to begin filming In Harm's Way (1965). Has appeared on WABC-TV Consumer Line in New York City to deal with a botched contracting job in her bathroom. [March 2009] Is one of 6 actresses to have been pregnant at the time of winning the Academy Award; the others are Eva Marie Saint , Meryl Streep , Catherine Zeta-Jones , Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman . Neal is the only to have not accepted her award in person as a result of her pregnancy. Neal was 8 months pregnant with her daughter Ophelia Dahl when she won the Best Actress Oscar for Hud (1963).

Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84 - USATODAY.com Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84 Updated Enlarge By Mark Humphrey, AP file Actress Patricia Neal, seen here in April 2008 in Nashville, died Sunday at age 84. Neal had lung cancer and died at her home in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard. From staff and wire reports Patricia Neal was an Academy Award-winning actress known on screen for her husky voice and the quiet strength she brought to roles in such acclaimed films as Hud (1963) and The Fountainhead (1949) and the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Ultimately the actress, who died of lung cancer Sunday at 84 surrounded by her family at her home in Edgartown, Mass., became just as famous for the tragedies that hit her and her family in the 1960s. That she overcame those misfortunes to once again become an award-winning performer is as much a part of her legacy as are her movie and TV roles.

Neal won a best-actress Oscar for her role opposite Melvyn Douglas and Paul Newman in Hud. Less than two years later, she suffered a series of strokes at age 39. She fought valiantly to regain her speech and the ability to walk, returning to the big screen in 1968 in The Subject Was Roses, for which she received another best-actress Oscar nomination. In 1971, she played Olivia Walton in The Homecoming: A Christmas Story , a made-for-TV film that served as the pilot for the CBS series The Waltons . It brought her the first of her three Emmy nominations. The actress was married for 30 years to the late Roald Dahl, the British writer famed for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and other tales for children. They had five children. They divorced in 1983 after she learned he was having an affair with her best friend. Before her marriage, she'd had an ill-fated affair with actor Gary Cooper, her co-star in The Fountainhead. He was 47 and she was 22 at the time.

A daughter died of measles in 1962, and her infant son nearly died in 1960 when his carriage was struck by a taxi. In her 1988 autobiography, As I Am, she wrote, "Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison." In 1999, she starred in her first feature film in 10 years in the title role in Robert Altman 's Cookie's Fortune. She said at the time that movie offers had been scarce in recent years. "I don't quite understand it, but nobody calls me and nobody wants me. But I love to act." Neal was born in a mining camp in Packard, Ky., the daughter of a transportation manager for the South Coal & Coke Co. After leaving Knoxville, she attended Northwestern University and then struck out for Broadway. The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center that helps people recover from strokes and spinal cord and brain injuries is named for her in Knoxville, where she grew up.

Her family said her dedication to the rehab center and advocacy for stroke sufferers was a great source of hope for them and their families and a "constant inspiration to our family." "You can't give up," she said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "You sure want to, sometimes." Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Posted E-mail | Print | To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com . Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more .

Courier-Journal - Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84 Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84 Updated 8/9/2010 2:21 AM ET From staff and wire reports Patricia Neal was an Academy Award-winning actress known on screen for her husky voice and the quiet strength she brought to roles in such acclaimed films as Hud (1963) and The Fountainhead (1949) and the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Ultimately the actress, who died of lung cancer Sunday at 84 surrounded by her family at her home in Edgartown, Mass., became just as famous for the tragedies that hit her and her family in the 1960s. That she overcame those misfortunes to once again become an award-winning performer is as much a part of her legacy as are her movie and TV roles. Neal won a best-actress Oscar for her role opposite Melvyn Douglas and Paul Newman in Hud. Less than two years later, she suffered a series of strokes at age 39.

She fought valiantly to regain her speech and the ability to walk, returning to the big screen in 1968 in The Subject Was Roses, for which she received another best-actress Oscar nomination. In 1971, she played Olivia Walton in The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, a made-for-TV film that served as the pilot for the CBS series The Waltons. It brought her the first of her three Emmy nominations. The actress was married for 30 years to the late Roald Dahl, the British writer famed for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and other tales for children. They had five children. They divorced in 1983 after she learned he was having an affair with her best friend. Before her marriage, she'd had an ill-fated affair with actor Gary Cooper, her co-star in The Fountainhead. He was 47 and she was 22 at the time. A daughter died of measles in 1962, and her infant son nearly died in 1960 when his carriage was struck by a taxi.

In her 1988 autobiography, As I Am, she wrote, "Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison." In 1999, she starred in her first feature film in 10 years in the title role in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune. She said at the time that movie offers had been scarce in recent years. "I don't quite understand it, but nobody calls me and nobody wants me. But I love to act." Neal was born in a mining camp in Packard, Ky., the daughter of a transportation manager for the South Coal & Coke Co. After leaving Knoxville, she attended Northwestern University and then struck out for Broadway. The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center that helps people recover from strokes and spinal cord and brain injuries is named for her in Knoxville, where she grew up. Her family said her dedication to the rehab center and advocacy for stroke sufferers was a great source of hope for them and their families and a "constant inspiration to our family." "You can't give up," she said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "You sure want to, sometimes." Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Posted 8/8/2010 11:32 PM ET Updated 8/9/2010 2:21 AM ET Patricia Neal, Oscar-Winner, Dies at 84 | Fox News Patricia Neal, Oscar-Winner, Dies at 84 Published August 09, 2010 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 livefyre Email Print Legendary actress Patricia Neal died at age 84. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Patricia Neal , the willowy, husky-voiced actress who won an Academy Award for 1963's "Hud" and then survived several strokes to continue acting, died on Sunday. She was 84. Neal had lung cancer and died surrounded by her family at her home in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard. "She faced her final illness as she had all of the many trials she endured: with indomitable grace, good humor and a great deal of her self-described stubbornness," her family said in a statement.

Neal was already an award-winning Broadway actress when she won her Oscar for her role as a housekeeper to the Texas father (Melvyn Douglas) battling his selfish, amoral son ( Paul Newman ). Less than two years later, she suffered a series of strokes in 1965 at age 39. Her struggle to once again walk and talk is regarded as epic in the annals of stroke rehabilitation. She returned to the screen to earn another Oscar nomination and three Emmy nominations. The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center that helps people recover from strokes and spinal cord and brain injuries is named for her in Knoxville, where she grew up. "She never forgot us after she went to Hollywood," said 85-year-old Bud Albers, who graduated with Neal from Knoxville High School in 1943, and still lives in the city. Whenever she was in town, a bunch of her friends would always get together and have dinner, Albers said. She had wanted to be there next week for a golf tournament that benefits the center, he said. "She was so courageous," he said of her battling back from her illnesses and losing her 7-year-old daughter to measles in 1962. "She always fought back.

She was very much an inspiration." In her 1988 autobiography, "As I Am," she wrote, "Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison." Neal projected force that almost crackled on the screen. Her forte was drama, but she had a light touch that enabled her to do comedy, too. She had the female leads in the 1949 film version of Ayn Rand's novel "The Fountainhead," the classic 1951 science fiction film "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and Elia Kazan's 1957 drama "A Face in the Crowd." She made a grand return to the screen after her strokes in 1968, winning an Oscar nomination for her performance in "The Subject Was Roses." In 1971, she played Olivia Walton in "The Homecoming: A Christmas Story," a made-for-TV film that served as the pilot for the CBS series "The Waltons." It brought her the first of her three Emmy nominations. "You can't give up," she said in a 1999 Associated Press interview.

"You sure want to, sometimes." In 1953, she married Roald Dahl , the British writer famed for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "James and the Giant Peach" and other tales for children. They had five children. They divorced in 1983 after she learned he was having an affair with her best friend and he died in 1990. Even before her illnesses, her life often was touched by misfortune. Besides her daughter's death, an infant son nearly died in 1960 when his carriage was struck by a taxi. Neal also suffered a nervous breakdown, and had an ill-fated affair with Gary Cooper, who starred with her in "The Fountainhead." "I lived this secret life for several years. I was so ashamed," she told The New York Times in 1964. The strokes at first paralyzed her and impaired her speech. After recovering, she limped and had bad vision in one eye. A 1991 biopic about her travails starred Glenda Jackson as Neal.

Her family said her dedication to the rehab center and advocacy for stroke sufferers was a great source of hope for them and their families and a "constant inspiration to our family." In 1999, she starred in her first feature film in 10 years in the title role in Robert Altman's "Cookie's Fortune." She said at the time that movie offers had been scarce in recent years. "I don't quite understand it, but nobody calls me and nobody wants me. But I love to act." Neal was born in a mining camp in Packard, Ky., the daughter of a transportation manager for the South Coal & Coke Co. After leaving Knoxville, she attended Northwestern University and then struck out for Broadway. Her Broadway credits included "A Roomful of Roses," "The Miracle Worker" (as Helen Keller's mother, Kate) and a revival of Lillian Hellman's drama "The Children's Hour." She made her screen debut in 1949's "John Loves Mary," that also starred Jack Carson and Ronald Reagan. Her three Emmy nominations were all for roles in notable drama specials: Besides "The Homecoming," they were "Tail Gunner Joe," a 1977 drama about Sen.

Joe McCarthy, and a version of the tragic World War I story "All Quiet on the Western Front." Among Neal's children is Tessa Dahl, who followed in her father's footsteps as a writer. Tessa Dahl's daughter is the model and writer Sophie Dahl. Friends said her sorrows gave her an inner toughness that brought new power to her screen roles. "I don't lie down. ... I'm fightin' all the way," she said in 1999. The statement from Tessa, Theo, Ophelia and Lucy Dahl and others said that the night before her death, Neal told them, "I've had a lovely time." Advertisement Patricia Neal - Telegraph Film Obituaries Patricia Neal Patricia Neal, who died on Sunday aged 84, was a husky-voiced, Oscar-winning actress with a high-cheekboned, classical appeal; her career on film was interrupted by a series of personal tragedies, notably three near-fatal cerebral aneurysms from which she was nursed back to health by her husband, Roald Dahl.

7:45PM BST 09 Aug 2010 Comments So bleak was the prognosis in 1965 after Patricia Neal suffered the multiple strokes, which struck as she bathed her eldest daughter, that Variety mistakenly published news of her death. She was only 39 at the time, and pregnant with her fifth child by Dahl. Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead But against all expectations Patricia Neal not only survived, but also largely recovered the control over her body of which she had been stripped by the attacks. Having won an Oscar for her role opposite Paul Newman in Hud (1963), her rehabilitation was complete enough for her to perform again in The Subject Was Roses (1968) opposite Martin Sheen. Her unborn child also survived. It was a combination of triumph and tragedy that came to define Patricia Neal’s life. She credited her recovery, for example, almost exclusively to the dedication and cussed determination of her husband. It was Dahl who refused to let her cave in to being, as she later put it, “an enormous pink cabbage”. Relentlessly, mockingly, he drove Patricia Neal to rediscover her mental agility, while simultaneously surrounding her with physical therapists.

Eventually he insisted that she was well enough to take to the public platform again. It was 1967. “I knew at that moment that Roald the slave driver, Roald the bastard, with his relentless scourge, Roald the Rotten, as I had called him more than once, had thrown me back into the deep water where I belonged,” she later wrote. But having nursed Patricia Neal back to health, Dahl went on to leave her for a close friend, Felicity Crosland, who became his second wife. “I am bitter, yes,” she said the year after their divorce. “He did so much for me after my strokes. It was a terrible blow when I found out.” She was born Patsy Lou Neal at Packard, Kentucky, on January 20 1926, to a family with a penchant for whimsical names. Her father Coot acquired his nickname because he was “just plain cute”; her sister Margaret Ann was known as NiNi Neal; and her mother Eura was named after Eura Hogg, one of three daughters of a well-known Texan family. Patsy Lou was educated at Knoxville High School, quickly developing a taste for drama.

She won a state award for “dramatic reading” and studied Drama at Northwestern University, Illinois, which she left in 1943 to take up an opportunity in New York to play a part in Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten. There she was encouraged to drop her first names in favour of Patricia, which seemed better to fit her stately beauty. She then had several small roles, making ends meet with odd jobs and modelling work, until she met O’Neill in person, after he attended one of her productions. “I think his interest was personal,” she recalled. But Patricia Neal was clear-eyed about the ways of the world and the best ways to advance her career. “Flirting was a tool of the trade,” she said, “and I was an expert.” She was far from being the exploited ingénue: “It’s terrible what I did in those days. I don’t know what happened to my morals: if I wanted someone, I wanted them.” Within days of meeting O’Neill she was offered two Broadway roles, plumping for the lead in the playwright Lillian Hellman’s Another Part of the Forest.

Her performance won a host of accolades including a Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics Award. Aged 21 she made the cover of Life magazine, and was quickly whisked away to Hollywood. Her career in film started with John Loves Mary (1949) opposite Ronald Reagan. (“He was a pleasant fellow. We had adjoining suites and dined together each evening, but he never made a pass at me, dash it all”). The film was equally unsuccessful and, perhaps inevitably given that she had no training for the screen, her performance was panned. It didn’t seem to matter. Signed to a long contract with Warner Bros., she was quickly assigned the female lead opposite Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead (1949). The film, once again, was not a success. But this time Patricia Neal struck up a blazing romance with her fellow star, who at 48 was a quarter of a century her senior. None the less she always described the actor as the only true love of her life. “He is one of the most beautiful things that ever happened to me in my life. I love him even now,” she confessed 40 years later.

But Cooper was married and the affair, which they attempted to keep secret, scandalised Los Angeles. “It was pure hell. People actually turned their heads away when I walked in a room.” Patricia Neal also pointed out that many of the women who ostracised her were themselves ex-mistresses who had supplanted the previous wives of their husbands. She described “quiet evenings with Gary”. “He would whip up a scrumptious guacamole dip. After supper we just sat and listened to records”. But that was clearly not all they did, and she became pregnant with his baby in 1950. She regretted the abortion for the rest of her life. “If I had only one thing to do over in my life,” she wrote in her autobiography As I Am (1988, written with Richard DeNeut), “I would have that baby.” The affair ended a year later, by which time she had made a third film flop, Bright Leaf. Cooper went on to make High Noon with Grace Kelly, while Patricia Neal starred with Michael Rennie in the science-fiction classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Her character was required to befriend a messenger from outer space and she was frequently reduced to giggles by the script, particularly when required to address the alien in his own “language”. She managed, just, to keep a straight face as she exclaimed: “Gort! Klaatu Barada Nikto”. The film, and several other lightweight features she was required to perform in, failed to ignite her career, and by her mid-twenties it seemed her days as a Hollywood star were already over. Reeling from her break with Cooper, she returned to New York. There, at a party given by Lillian Hellman, Patricia Neal met a brusque writer of short stories who had been posted to America with the RAF after being shot down during the war. It was not love at first sight. In fact, she went as far as to admit that she initially “loathed” Roald Dahl. “I was infuriated by his rudeness.” But Patricia Neal was later persuaded to overcome her initial reaction and the pair were married in 1953, beginning a turbulent 30-year union. “I knew I had had the love of my life,” she said, referring to Cooper.

“I don’t think he [Dahl] really cared either. But we both wanted children.” She continued to appear in plays, among them Broadway productions of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer. In 1957 she returned to film, in Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd, playing a radio reporter opposite Andy Griffith. It was a demanding role that finally gave her a chance to shine, and the reviews were rapturous. More good notices followed for theatre work, notably for her portrayal of Helen Keller’s mother in the stage version of The Miracle Worker (1959). But just as her career seemed on the up again, personal tragedy intervened. Lying in his pram, her four-month-old son, Theo, was crushed by a taxicab in December 1960, leaving him brain-damaged. In total he underwent eight operations on his skull. Roald Dahl decided to remove the family from the city, taking refuge in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. It was there that, two years later, the couple’s eldest daughter, Olivia, contracted measles and died within the day. She was seven. Despite the death, Patricia Neal returned to work.

She landed a role opposite Paul Newman in the film Hud, playing a housekeeper who fights to resist the young star’s obvious charms. Patricia Neal suggested it wasn’t all acting. “Oh, wasn’t he gorgeous? I was attracted to him, but I knew I’d better leave that alone.” The following year she collected an Academy Award for the performance. Oscar in hand, she was on the up again. She starred with John Wayne in In Harm’s Way, released in 1965. But then in February that year, after finishing the first day’s shooting for John Ford’s Seven Women, she fell victim to three powerful strokes. “Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy,” she wrote later. “The actress in me cannot deny that comparison.” Aged 39, she was plunged into a coma. That she survived at all was largely down to Dahl who, familiar with brain trauma after Theo’s accident, had immediately called a neurosurgeon. After two weeks her condition stabilised. After three weeks she emerged from unconsciousness – partially paralysed and blind and completely dumb – to the then dubious welcome of Dahl’s rigorous recovery regime. It paid painful dividends.

Within three months she could just walk, and her speech was somewhat recovered. “I loathed life,” she said. “I had exercises to do every day. My husband had people coming in to teach me — three a day. I wanted to commit suicide, but I didn’t know how.” After six months she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Lucy. After 18 months Patricia Neal recovered her lust for life: “I wanted to live again.” At Dahl’s insistence, she made an appearance at a fund-raising event for the Brain Injured Children association in New York. Her painstakingly memorised speech, delivered with the deliberate, concentrated manner that subsequently became a feature of her acting, was greeted with a standing ovation. Within another year – again at Dahl’s insistence – she returned to work, filming The Subject Was Roses. It was a triumph and she was again nominated for an Academy Award, though this time she did not win. She won the first of her three Emmy nominations playing Olivia Walton in The Homecoming (1971), the film that preceded the long-running series, The Waltons. But she acted less.

Indeed, in 1982, she herself was being played by an actress, Glenda Jackson, in the film portrayal of her dramatic life with Dahl (he was played by Dirk Bogarde). In an interview, their daughter Tessa Dahl said: “My parents are both very unhappy about the film. There’s an oversensitive Englishman playing my father and a Northern shopgirl as my mother. My parents aren’t getting a penny out of it”. In 1983 Patricia Neal and Dahl separated after she found out about his long-running affair. Her bitterness (“Roald is growing old,” she said, “but at least I’ve had his best years. Now he’s got a nurse for his old age.”) was tempered by consolation from the least expected of counsellors – Gary Cooper’s widow, Rocky, whom Patricia had cuckolded three decades previously. At Rocky’s urging Patricia Neal went into retreat at Regina Laudis Abbey in New England. “I was wild about the food,” Patricia Neal said, “especially the fresh bread and lentil soup. I traded in my street clothes for a black dress, scrubbed off my make-up and covered my hair with a black headscarf”.

Increasingly she became active in campaign work and fund-raising for stroke victims. But she did not give up acting. Indeed in later years she regretted that she was offered so few roles. In 1999 she did return to the screen, however, in Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune. By then she was enjoying a new role, as head of a large and increasingly famous brood of children and grandchildren. Among the latter is Sophie Dahl, the model and actress, who had a relationship with Mick Jagger a decade ago, when she was 23 and Jagger 57. Patricia Neal, no stranger to big age gaps, called Jagger a “bastard”, even while admitting that she had never met him. “Sophie was a little angry with me,” she admitted. Ultimately, however, she wished to be remembered not for gossip, or for the extraordinary turbulence of her personal life, but for her performances on stage and screen. “I am an actress, and I will take any good part as long as I can stand up,” she said in 2005.

“And when I can no longer do that, I will take them lying down.” Patricia Neal is survived by her four children Tessa, Theo, Ophelia and Lucy. Roald Dahl died in 1990. Postcrescent - Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84 Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal dies at age 84 Updated 8/9/2010 2:21 AM ET From staff and wire reports Patricia Neal was an Academy Award-winning actress known on screen for her husky voice and the quiet strength she brought to roles in such acclaimed films as Hud (1963) and The Fountainhead (1949) and the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Ultimately the actress, who died of lung cancer Sunday at 84 surrounded by her family at her home in Edgartown, Mass., became just as famous for the tragedies that hit her and her family in the 1960s. That she overcame those misfortunes to once again become an award-winning performer is as much a part of her legacy as are her movie and TV roles.

Neal won a best-actress Oscar for her role opposite Melvyn Douglas and Paul Newman in Hud. Less than two years later, she suffered a series of strokes at age 39. She fought valiantly to regain her speech and the ability to walk, returning to the big screen in 1968 in The Subject Was Roses, for which she received another best-actress Oscar nomination. In 1971, she played Olivia Walton in The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, a made-for-TV film that served as the pilot for the CBS series The Waltons. It brought her the first of her three Emmy nominations. The actress was married for 30 years to the late Roald Dahl, the British writer famed for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and other tales for children. They had five children. They divorced in 1983 after she learned he was having an affair with her best friend. Before her marriage, she'd had an ill-fated affair with actor Gary Cooper, her co-star in The Fountainhead. He was 47 and she was 22 at the time.

A daughter died of measles in 1962, and her infant son nearly died in 1960 when his carriage was struck by a taxi. In her 1988 autobiography, As I Am, she wrote, "Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison." In 1999, she starred in her first feature film in 10 years in the title role in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune. She said at the time that movie offers had been scarce in recent years. "I don't quite understand it, but nobody calls me and nobody wants me. But I love to act." Neal was born in a mining camp in Packard, Ky., the daughter of a transportation manager for the South Coal & Coke Co. After leaving Knoxville, she attended Northwestern University and then struck out for Broadway. The Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center that helps people recover from strokes and spinal cord and brain injuries is named for her in Knoxville, where she grew up.

Her family said her dedication to the rehab center and advocacy for stroke sufferers was a great source of hope for them and their families and a "constant inspiration to our family." "You can't give up," she said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "You sure want to, sometimes." Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Posted 8/8/2010 11:32 PM ET Updated 8/9/2010 2:21 AM ET

Question: Actress Patricia Neal, who won a best actress Oscar for her role in "Hud" in 1963, was married to which famous writer?
Answer: Roald Dahl